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Packing A Bicycle In A Cardboard Box For Flying

It’s crucial to pack your bike well for a flight. How best to do that is a source of great debate among cyclists.

There are 3 basic options:

Clear plastic bag. Simple and quick but arguably not the most protective and not accepted by all airlines. (See our experience flying a bike in a plastic bag)

Hard case. Very sturdy but expensive to buy, heavy to carry and awkward to store.

Cardboard bicycle box. Available most places in the world. Generally free but sometimes sold at airports.

This article focuses on the humble cardboard box.

Our two bikes, packed in cardboard boxes and waiting to be checked in. Panniers are in the chequered bags next to the boxes.

Why Use A Cardboard Box
Here are the main advantages to using a cardboard box:

It’s easy to find. Almost any bicycle shop should be able to give you one. Sometimes they charge a small fee

The box offers some protection for your frame and other fragile parts of the bicycle like the derailleur

You can put other things in the box (we always throw in our sleeping bags, camping mats and tent)

Because it’s cheap and easily replaceable, you don’t mind throwing it out on the other end of your journey or passing it on to another cyclist

People who prefer other methods of bike packing will point out that luggage handlers may not treat boxed bicycles with as much respect as one wrapped in clear plastic. Heavy things could get piled on top of the bicycle. Boxing your bike also takes more time than just wrapping a bit of plastic around it and a boxed bicycle is cumbersome to transport. You may have to take a taxi.

What You’ll Need
The final choice on how to pack your bike is up to you but if you do choose to use a cardboard box, here’s what to gather beforehand:

1. A Box – Call your local bike shop a few days ahead of time and confirm that they have a box to give you. Get the biggest box you can, especially if you have a touring bike (as opposed to a road bike or mountain bike) because touring bikes tend to have a longer wheelbase, making it harder to get everything in place. Just 2 inches of extra length can make a huge difference. Ask as well for the plastic spacers which go into the empty forks and help prevent them being bent if the box does get knocked about.

3. Patience – This may take a while. Give yourself a bare minimum of 3-4 hours to pack your bicycle into the box the first time you do it. Once you get the hang of it, you can probably do this in an hour or so but until you do it once, you won’t know how much squeezing and manoeuvring will be required to get everything in the box.

Even if you can’t find a box, you can still pack your bike in a similar way. Use local packing materials such as string, foam and bath mats to hold everything together and add plastic wrap as a final packing layer. Photo by Vivente Bikes.

DisassemblyHere’s how to take your bike apart and prepare it to go in the box.

1. Take the pedals off. This can be tougher than you think, especially if you don’t have a large pedal spanner to generate enough leverage to make those pedals pop off. Make life easier on yourself by putting a bit of lube on the pedal threads the day before you try to take them off and letting it soak in overnight.Even better, get your local bike shop to loosen the pedals for you. If you do try this at home, remember: the right-sided pedal unscrews counter-clockwise and the left-sided pedal goes clockwise.

2. Remove your handlebars. This is done by unscrewing the clamp that holds them in place, allowing the handlebars and all the attached brake and gear cables to be slipped neatly into the box, inside the triangle of your frame. Note that you are just taking the handlebars off. Do not play with the stem!

3. Take the wheels off (an easy job if you have quick-release wheels) and you can release a bit of air from the tires. This isn’t strictly necessary in our experience but some airlines recommend it.

Wheels demounted from the bike and with the hubs protected.

4. Remove racks and mudguards. Reattach the screws to the racks and mudguards as you go, so you don’t lose the screws and so you remember which one fits which hole.

5. Protect your bicycle. We usually wrap some foam or bubble wrap around the frame and use cardboard to encase our back cassette and derailleur. To protect the derailleur, we remove it from the main part of the frame and make a cardboard box to go around it.

6. Remove the seat. That’s another easy job. Just make a mark so you remember how far to put it back in and maybe wrap a bit of foam around the tube so it doesn’t scratch anything.

Fitting It InFinally! You are now ready to put your bike in the box.

How our bicycle frame looks, before it goes into the cardboard box.

The frame goes in first. Ours goes in upside down, resting on the seatpost and the stem of the handlebars.

Your back wheel should slide back into its normal position or at least roughly in the same location. Because the mudguards have been taken off, the wheel can be repositioned back in but with slightly more headroom between the wheel and the frame.

Your front wheel should be able to slide beside the triangle of your bike frame. You may need a helper to hold the sides of the box out as you slip the wheel inside.

Everything else (pedals, seat, lights and maybe your helmet, lock, water bottles or air pump) can go into the various crevices of the box. Fill up any big holes or places where things may be rattling by putting your sleeping bag and mat in there too. Crumpled newspaper is fine too if you’re travelling light.

Close the box up with a healthy dose of packing tape and string and write your name and contact details on all sides with a big, black marker. Patch up any holes in the box from its previous life with tape.

IMPORTANT: When you go to the airport, bring extra tape in case you need to open your box for inspection and reseal it again. Hopefully the airline will reseal the box for you but sometimes they aren’t prepared.

Comments

Just one thing about packing your bike (and I’m going to have to do that in a couple of weeks when I fly from Iran to India) – why do you have to take the back wheel off it you are going to put it back in its normal position? Can you not just take the chain off the cogs?

Hi Ann, I’ll try to clarify for you. Because you’ve taken the mudguards off, the back wheel can slide into the same position (roughly) but a little more efficiently and leaving a bit more space than before. At least that’s the way it works with our bikes.

Hi Ann,
I’m looking for airline that will take our bikes from Iran to India. Could you five me some info on which airline you took.
Cos it seems to us now that it is all a bit difficult with dimensions allowence. At least on the websites of airline companies.
thak you so much for your response

Actually, it isn’t necessary to remove the back wheel for most boxes. Also,many airlines can provide bike boxes. This is a much better option than getting your bicycle boxed at a bike shop as you don’t have to work out how to get your bike to the airport in a huge box, or how to lug a huge box to the airport…

Hi Tim, good tip about trying to get a box at the airport. We did try that, but weren’t successful. We were told ‘maybe we’ll have one, maybe we won’t’ and once the airline wanted to charge us $25 each for the box, although arguably if it saves you a taxi fare it’s worth it. We always had to remove our back wheel, but I think our bikes are a bit longer than most.

Hi, we are flying into Munich Airport to do a cycling trip, would you know if Munich Airport have boxes to purchase for our return trip? They wanted to charge us 13 euro a day for each box to store ..5 weeks..too expensive!! Cheers Albert & Fay

Hi Fay, I’ve travelled all over with my precious bike and think a cardboard bike box well padded out with more cardboard is as good as an expesnive hard or soft case (tried all three).
Any bike shop will be glad to give you the box for free, so just pass it to recycling when you arrive and the day before you leave pop into a bike shop for a new one

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I am looking into taking a flight from Iran to Vietnam with our bikes. It requires about 5 change overs, with various airline companies. The websites are not very friendly to use and info about taking bikes on planes with various airlines companies is difficult to find.
Does anyone know of an easy way to do this?

Well… I have flew several times with my bike around Europe and alto to and from the United States.
You only need 2 things: The biggest garbage bag roll you can find on any supermarket (Usually are in group of 10 bags) and tape.

Unroll the bags and put tape in the dotted lines where divides the garbage bags. Put the chain into the 1st gear. Remove left pedal only, if your bike is big also remove the seat. Apply the brakes on to the rear wheel. Remove the front wheel and attach to the frame, as well lock the moveable parts with tape such as traction and wrapt it reverse side (for the bike dont get sticky (if you have some card or foam or other leftovers apply on the pointy areas). Wrap it, be generous on the tape (better 2 rolls) and thats it! Safe and sound!

Regarding flights try to get direct flights (so the bike will not suffer too much.

And when unfold you may be able to reuse the gargabe bags for protect against the rain for example!

And I also inform that on many trips I biked to the airport and folded the bike there (With my previous bike just took me 30 minutes), With my current one takes like one hour ad there are more stuff to pack! Also the toolbox will be with the bike. There is no weight measure when carrying the bikes for many airlines! So once again: Tape and 120 liter garbage bag! Simple, light and cheap!

I never remove the back wheel.Now I am planning to get a bag(iXS TranZBag Evolution)it is not so heavy 850g and I think I can put some cardbox inside and fly like this if I can t find a box,also I think I can use the bag as a footprint and use it in buses and trains too

Planning to fly to the Phillipines from Japan with my trek-bicycle. Can you put all your luggage in the carton-box as well? Are will they make problems about it? I read that you always put your sleepingbags/tent etc. in it, ever had any problems with it? Ofcourse I know it’s probably more difficult to fit but I was wondering.

Hey Cherwin,
No problem if you can fit it in. What we’ve done a couple of times is getting all our panniers in the boxes and bought a separate bag to put in all our our luggage. Have that bag sealed at the sealing desk on the airport and you’re good to go. That gives you 2 pieces of luggage to go into the hull and one handluggage.
All the best

We packed our bikes using a bike box, took off the front wheel, both pedals, turn in the handle bar straight and removed the seat, tie up all the parts using plastic tie wraps – also put our camping tent inside the box with some tools. Some airline charge $50-US as a large luggage

Nice guide here. I’ve been packing bikes for a while now and can’t agree more – cardboard boxes are where it’s at. This next trip I’m hoping to get two mountain bikes, minus one set of wheels into one bike box. They are dual suspension so I can break them down, but who knows if this cunning plan is going to work out!

We have Enviro Bike Box,made of plastic twin board, water proof. it is same weight as cardboard 4kg only, standard size for Qantas 1400x300x800 mm. Cycling Aust has been using these boxes since 2007 without any problem. It is very good price too. For this size of box you can keep back wheel on and fill up with your all personal items inside and get both hands free. It is free if weight is under limit of airline.More detail see http://www.envirobikebox.com.au

And what about the racks? How do you guys pack up the racks? Is there a way to place them inside the bike box? We’re on the process of packing up two bikes to travel from the US to Europe and do not know what to do with the racks as we don’t have enough luggage space outside the bike boxes to carry the racks. Any advice please. Thank you.

Hi I bought 2 mountain bikes in amazon they are still in their boxes but I am taking them to Honduras and I am flying with American, is it ok to take them in those boxes? Or will it cost me the $150 fee for transporting a bike ? Or it’s considered an extra bag?

Remove your pedals, tri-bars or anything else that will leave part of the bike hanging out of the case.Keep the weight of your bike bag down, and not just so you’re inside your weight limit.If you are going to fill up the bag or box, make sure rigid items like bike pumps aren’t free to move around the bag, potentially scratching the frame or damaging the components.

What do you about about length restrictions? On my trip, I’l be planning to fly from china to America. AirChina will simply refuse to board it if your hull luggage exceeds 158cm (length+height+Width). You’re allowed to check in 2, but I’m going to to need one for everything else. Can anyone explain how to fit a bike into a box that small?

I am going to France this summer, last time, in 2014, I used my bike case, but its a hassle finding a place to store it etc. This time I want to take it in a cardboard box and recycle that when I get to Paris. I will simple get another one for the return trip. Question, when I go to the airport (LAX), do I leave the bike box unsealed so that it can be inspected? Or do I tape it and the inspectors have tape to reseal the box?

Ray, put an extra roll of tape and a knife in your box or checked luggage so you can reseal it if it gets inspected. So you are ready for any eventualities. You’ll need it anyway for your return journey, or if you have to change flights and would need to re-check it. And have your box sealed and ready to fly before you go to check-in.
Eric

Boxing up at the end of the trip: depending on where you are departing from, a local bike shop may be able to box your bike for you.

At the end of riding the Camino de Santiago, our friends had a shop box them up for about 20€. We have contacted a shop in Faro in advance to let them know we are coming. They’ll have boxes ready for us and will pack them up for 25€ each. Any potential headaches will be averted and we will have more time to sightsee and drink wine!

Some airlines don’t allow bikes packed into plastic only. Damage liability issue. Air Canada used to hand you a bike plastic bag for C$10, not anymore, you’ve got to have it in a box.
I have a road bike (long frame). Boxed it for many air trips, no problems. Both pannier carriers on. handlebars, wheels and fenders off, tacked into the free space around the frame. I do not worry about scratches as some of you here do 🙂

Last time flying from Egypt, I packed my bike into cardboard emballage for furniture — that’s the best I could find. The spoke of the rear wheel broke, presumably under lateral pressure of luggage in the hold or during baggage handling.

To save myself a surprise of a baggage surcharge for weight of the packed box, I put pedals, lights, seat and tools into the panniers, which form a carry-on baggage when tied together.
Tent poles go into the box, as they would stick out from the carry-on. If my helmet does not fit into the box or into carry-on, I put it on my head.
I put most of my clothing on, to reduce the weight and volume of my baggage.
As I travel light, I never had to pay for extra baggage.

Does anyone use the same cardboard box for outbound and return, storing it at their hotel? And if so, how do you get it between the destination airport and the hotel? I guess you can pay for a taxi, but in many countries trying to get a bike and box into a taxi would be difficult. The obvious answer is to carry it on your bike for the usually 10k-ish trip between airport and hotel, but is that really awkward?

About Us

We’re Friedel & Andrew: two Canadians who love travelling by bicycle. We’ve travelled through over 30 countries and cycled over 60,000km. Most of that distance was covered on a bike tour around the world from 2006-2009. Read More »

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